Outline of the book

This section presents an outline of the book and its thesis.

Chapter 1, "Introduction"

This chapter introduces the concept of private climate governance and argues that private sector action provides a promising opportunity to reduce climate change risks, buying time while governments move slowly or even oppose climate mitigation. Read More…

Chapter 2, "The Climate Challenge"

This chapter explores the implications of the climate science for climate mitigation and explains why the potential for severe, irreversible effects argues for assigning urgency and priority to the pursuit of emissions reductions. Read More…

Chapter 3, "The Public Governance Challenge"

This chapter examines the features of the climate problem that make an adequate government response difficult. Read More…

Chapter 4, "The Private Governance Option"

This chapter explains why corporations and households have motivations to reduce carbon emissions and why advocacy groups have the ability to harness these motivations. Read More…

Chapter 5, "The Corporate Sector"

This chapter identifies numerous corporate climate initiatives underway around the world and explains how new initiatives could reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by an additional half-billion tons over the next decade. Read More…

Chapter 6, "The Household Sector"

This chapter identifies the wide range of private initiatives that target household carbon emissions and explains how expanding existing initiatives and developing new ones could reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions reductions by roughly a half billion tons over the next decade. Read More…

Chapter 7, "Cross-Cutting Initiatives"

This chapter discusses two private climate mitigation initiatives that could shift climate science beliefs and support for climate mitigation. Read More…

Chapter 8, "Objections"

This chapter examines three objections to private climate governance. Read More…

Chapter 9, "Extensions"

This chapter argues that understanding the role of private initiatives can unlock many new opportunities. Read More…

Chapter 10, "Conclusions"

The conclusion argues that the book demonstrates the emerging importance of private climate initiatives, develops a plausible theory of why private actors are motivated to reduce emissions, and makes a persuasive case that annual greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by a billion tons or more within the next decade. Read More…